Supporting Education

More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. That’s 17 percent of the world’s adult population.

Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy. We support education for all children and literacy for children and adults.

How Rotary makes help happen

We take action to empower educators to inspire learning at all ages.

Teacher training

We share our knowledge and experience with educators and other professionals who work with vulnerable populations.

Adult literacy

Rotary members fight adult illiteracy by working with local advocates to offer community literacy programs.

Rotary scholarships

Rotary members invest in the future by giving scholarships to students who have the potential to change our communities.

Educating refugees

A university president and Rotary club fight Boko Haram to bring education and food to refugees in Nigeria.

Mentoring students

Our impact on education

The Rotary Foundation supports education through scholarships, donations, and service projects around the world.

500.00

adults raised their reading levels by three grades in Detroit

$100.00 mil

in grants to get clean water in Lebanese schools

Rotary members make amazing things happen, like:

Opening schools: In Afghanistan, Rotary members opened a girls’ school to break the cycle of poverty and social imbalance.

Teaching adults to read: Rotary members in the United States partnered with ProLiteracy Detroit to recruit and train tutors after a study showed that more than half of the local adult population was functionally illiterate.

New teaching methods: The SOUNS program in South Africa, Puerto Rico and the United States teaches educators how to improve literacy by teaching children to recognize letters by sounds instead of names.

Making schools healthy: Rotarians are providing clean, fresh water to every public school in Lebanon so students can be healthier and get a better education.

When you teach somebody how to read, they have that for a lifetime. It ripples through the community, one by one.